Related Articles

Hellmurto told the Telegraph he was excited for his new role, with a smattering of first-night nerves ahead of his sword-swallowing trick.

Saying he does not perform the dangerous neon tube trick any more, he added: "It's my first time in any opera. I'm nervous but excited - I absolutely love it."

It is more than two years since Hellmurto cut himself on the wide neon light, in a trick he developed after realising it would "look very nice" for audiences, with a bright light appearing to shine through his throat.

The light, however, was significantly wider than the swords he was used to swallowing, weakening his windpipe during rehearsals without him realising.

In January 2012, it tore live on stage in his Circus of Horrors performance.

"You don't have many nerves there, so I felt something but it wasn't agony," Hellmurto told the Telegraph. "I didn't know what it was, so I finished the show.

"About two hours later, it got worse and I was having trouble breathing.

"It turned out I was basically drowning in my own blood."

He spent three-and-a-half weeks in intensive care, while medics drained his lungs of blood, and eight in hospital being fed and hydrated through tubes.

Hannibal Hellmurto swallows a sword on stage before the accident (CATER NEWS)

At one point, he was put into a coma as his body started to shut down, as doctors performed a tracheotomy.

Remarkably, after four weeks recuperating at home, he pledged to return to the Circus of Horror stage and has continued in his career.

He will now make his opera debut, as part of the Cosí fan tutte cast, performing a traditional sword swallowing trick.

"That neon tube, I don't do it any more," he added.

Hellmurto is to join the English National Opera's new production of Cosí fan tutte, which plays out Mozart’s dark comedy of fidelity in the curious world of the funfair

Directed by Phelim McDermott, it will tell the story of a bet between two young men with a philosopher about the fidelity of their fiancées.

A spokesman for the company added "deception, disguise, deceit and desire" will all be played out in a "world where make-believe and reality are fantastically blurred".

It will be set in a faded 1950’s Coney Island-inspired seaside town complete with pleasure garden, fairground rides, carney workers and an end-of-the-pier circus sideshow with freakish acts.

Cosí fan tutte opens at the London Coliseum on Friday 16 May for 12 performances.